About the Virtual Magnetospheric Observatory...

The Virtual Magnetospheric Observatory (VMO) is a
distributed data environment with a web-accessible
graphical user interface and application programming
interface that provides a unified data discovery and
retrieval. Magnetospheric mission data are publicly
available from a diverse group of geographically-dispersed
service providers whose capabilities range from simple FTP
service to HTTP-based, query-enabled sites; from single
instrument data services to large, multi-spacecraft data
archives. The diversity of mission data services is expected
to further increase with time. Therefore, it is desirable to
establish a data environment that connects the data services
and allows user access to them via a common interface.

The Virtual Magnetospheric Observatory (VMO) is a
dynamically evolving data environment where individual
elements can be introduced as the need arises. The benefits
of VMO data environment to the space physics community
include, for example, a uniform find, access, and use of
resources (data, software, documentation, and services using
these) from a collection of distributed data and service
providers. An integral part of the VMO is to provide a set
of standards for the easy inclusion of additional data and
service providers, resulting in (1) a flexible and
extensible VMO and (2) a capability sufficient for new and
exciting magnetospheric and magnetosheath research.

The VMO is a part of the NASA's LWS Data Environment. LWS
seeks to establish a global understanding of the Sun-Earth
system with a focus on those aspects that affect human
endeavors. Both for this purpose and to carry out the other
research of NASA's Sun-Solar System Connection (S3C) theme
more efficiently, many committees and study panels have
recommended a distributed, integrated, flexible data
environment -
Space and Solar Physics Virtual Observatories
(VxOs).